Improvement in artificial arms



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

JON. H. KOELLER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN ARTIFICIAL ARMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 44,638, dated October l1, 1864,

To all-'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JUN. H. KOELLER, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Mode of Constructing the Artificial Shoulder-Joint and Arm; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and accurate description thereof.` reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The nature of my invention consists in supplying an artificial shoulder and shoulderjoint, arm, forearm, and elbow-joint where that member has been lost or amputated.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and to use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

Figures I, II, and III represent a sectional side, back, and a perspective quarter view of my invention.

A is a shoulder-collar, constructed of thin metal or other suitable material, molded to the form of the shoulder, and irmly attached thereto by straps or fastenings crossing the upper portion of the chest or trunk, and constituting the basis or foundation of all the required movements of the arm.

B B is a ring encircling the outer rim or opening of the shoulder collar, and firmly at-r tached or fixed in its position by the brackets or stays c c c.

D D is a hoop, slightly conical in shape, and in length a little more than half the circle or outer rim or opening of the shouldercollar, to which it is indirectly connected by the brackets E E, which, by sliding on the stationary ring B B, gives or allows a movement or motion in the artificial arm analogous to that which is obtained in the natural arm from the ball-and-socket joint at the shoulder. This sliding or semi-rotary movement of the hoop D D is also instrumental, as will be hereinafter seen, in giving flexion and extension to the forearm, as well as to the hand and fingers when they are brought indirectly in y connection with it.

F F is the shell of the humerus, or upper portion of the artificial arm, for the reception of the stump, and is attached or suspended to the hoop D D by thetwo brackets G G, which brackets, being placed and firmly attached opposite to each other on the hoop D D, and their other ends similarly placed on the opposite sides-. c., on the front and back part of the shell F-and this latter attachment being by means of pivots, I am enabled to accomplish another necessary movement of the upper arm-to wit, bringing it from the side of the body to a right-angled and almost perpendicular position. Thus, while the sliding of the hoop D on the ring C gives t0 the arm a motion backward and forward, ora swing,77 as naturally occurs when walking, the hinge or pivot attachment of t-he brackets G G to the shell F gives the lateral elevating or rightangled movement, and the combination of the two constructions or arrangements gives all the intermediate motions and positions of the arm as are effected or accomplished in the natural arm by means of the ball-and-soeket joint. This mechanical arrangement has the effect of an exterior capsular ligament, and, though not possessed of the elasticity of that membrane, would be viewed or regarded by the anatomist as the analogue of that membranous structure which surrounds the balland-socket joint of the shoulder, and which, with the muscles, hangs or sustains the arm in the natural subject.

The flexion and extension of the forearm is accomplished by the following described mechanism: His the section of a toothed or cog wheel, acting measurably on the principle of the bell-crank. Its shaft or center I I works in the two lateral braces J J, which are rmly attached to the lower portion of the shell F, and braced at their lower ends by the semihoop brace K. The cogs of the segmentwheel H work or mesh into the doubleplate pinion-wheel L, whose shaft or center M passes through the lower ends of the lateral braces or straps J J.

The exion and extension of the forearm by the backward and forward movement of the shell of the upper arm, or the muscular efforts of the stump within it, is nally accomplished or effected in the following manner The bracket N, being firmly attached to the shoulder-collar A, its extremity O becomes a fixed point, and when that stationary point is brought in connection with the movable point P of the segment-wheel H by means of the curved hinge-strap Q, rod R, and hinge-link S, it is evident that a forward movement of the stump of the arm, carrying with it the shell F, must move the segment-wheel Hin a reverse or opposite direction, and the upper yorlion of the pinion-wheel L in the same direction, and, as the latter Wheel and its shaft are rmly attached to the shell at either end of the shaft, and still further by the brace W, it becomes part and parcel of the shell of the forearm. The motion, then, ofthe latter (being a lever with its fulcrnm at M) must be in a direction opposite to that of the upper part or periphery of the pinion-wheel L, and thus the forearm becomes flexed or bent upon the upper arm. In like manner the reverse or opposite movement of the stump and shell of the upper arm must produce or effect the extensionV or. straightening of the forearm.

Byy the instrumentality of the sume mechanism and movements of the stump and shell of the upper arm I accomplish the iexion and extension of the thumb and lingers. This is effected by'communicating to the slide T the movements of the toothed section of a wheel, H by means of the two fiat connecting-rods U U, their place of attachment to said wheel being` determined by the extent of movement of the slide requisite for the due extension and iexion of the fingers. The two connectingrods U U work or play at their two extremities on the pivots V V.

The mechanism employed and the manner in which the slide T is connected with the mechanism for producing the flexion and extension of the fingers has been fully specified and described in my application for patent filed on or about the 25th day of February, 1864, for improvements in the artificial metallic arm.

What I claim in the foregoing specification, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The methed or mode of constructing the artificial shoulder-joint by means of the collar A, the ring B B, and the hoop D D, sliding or moving on the-same by means ofthe brackets E E, together with the hinge motion of the shell F of the upper arm effected by the movement of the stump and by means of pivots g g,

as hereinbefore set forth and described.

2. The arrangement and mode of constructing the artificial elbow-joint, and the following enumerated parts for elfecting the iiexion and extension of the forearm and the alternating right-lined motion ofthe slide T, for the flexion and extension ofthe thumb and fingersto wit, the bracket N, the curved hinge-link Q, the rod It, the link S, with its hinge P, the segment of cog-wheel H, the pinion-wheel L, the brace W, the connecting-rods U U, and the slide T, as hereinbefore fully specified and described.

JON. H. KOELLER.

Witnesses:

H. MonToN, J'. M. GRENELL. 

